Artist of the Month September 2018: Benjamin Munoz

It's my pleasure to introduce you to Benjamin Munoz. He's an amazing artist right out of Dallas, TX and I had the opportunity to interview him this month. He is our September 2018 Artist of the Month!

So what inspires your work?

My work is reflective of my culture, upbringing, and current surroundings.

How did you get started with Printmaking?

I had an elective credit and my advisor recommended printmaking. She said that I would love it and it would be perfect for me (which i found strange because i didn't even know what printmaking was). I later found out that my advisor and printmaking instructor were really good friends and he needed one more student for the class to make and thats why I was thrown in. I didn't mind, I actually think its hilarious. I love printmaking and ever since that first class I haven't looked back.

That’s awesome. What is your preferred medium and subject matter?

Relief Printmaking. My subject matter is really anything that I personally relate to. Recently its been more cultural; but I’ll work on anything that I feel a strong connection to.

What do you love most about Printmaking?

The process. I love mixing ink and rolling it out, I love setting the gauges, carving, cleaning, I love the whole process.

What do you struggle with most in your Printmaking?

My relationship with printmaking is a never ending struggle. I've been carving for years and i'm just now beginning to understand line variety and textures and really all that i can accomplish with just wood and some tools.

More specifically I'm currently working on trying to gain a better understanding ink density. I feel like there is so much room for improvement that i really cant say any one thing that i struggle with.

Is printmaking/art what you do full-time? How did you start out? At what point did you realize this was something that could sustain you, and what was that like?

Yes I am full-time. I started taking art seriously when my wife and I got married and I needed to start making money. Art started giving me full-time money when i gave it my full-time attention.

My father and grandfather were both self employed so i definitely grew up around this idea of being a self starter and being business minded in everything. So when i look at their lives i see men who asked themselves "what am i good at?" and then did that for a living, I did the same thing.

Can you tell us a bit about the pieces you’ve shared today?

These are photos from two separate series of woodcuts that I made. Both were created and finished over the last year. The first is a set of six 8ftx4ft woodcuts titled "The Endless Endeavor".

This second series is titled "These Bones Shall Live".

Where can people find you online?

Wrapping Up

A big thank you again to Benjamin for interviewing with us!

Thank you, our readers, for taking time out of your day and sharing in Benjamin’s art! Please leave a comment with your thoughts and get a discussion going! This is a wonderful opportunity to bring some minds together!